Candidates should focus on community anchors

Libraries serve everyone in the community, photo courtesy of Cherry Hill Public Library.

Libraries: The quintessential community organization in the digital age

Given the critical role of local communities to our nation’s economic strength, ALA’s Alan Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), is urging the presidential candidates to make communities, and specifically libraries in their role as community anchors, a central part of the candidates’ campaign conversations.

Libraries are now digitally-enabled community spaces with an array of technology training and resources, Inouye explains, noting that “Libraries, as well as other community anchor institutions, are best positioned to effect positive change towards an economy for the future that works for everyone.”

His op ed article is published in the Digital Beat Blog of the Benton Foundation.